As written earlier, the kernel package is what I have already tried to
boot from and it freezes after the 'remapping the kernel' message. Happens
for both the 2.4.27 smp and 2.6.8 smp packaged kernels. The only
difference I can find with them being that both of them use initrd images
so I am trying to build a 2.6.8 which does not use/need that since the
2.4.18 kernel that it runs right now will boot successfully and does not
use initrd.

Hm, kernel-package is just a tool for building your own kernel debs. It
has nothing to do with packaged Debian kernels. Using it you can build your
own kernel debs using the whatever source and configs you prefer. Maybe I
am stating something obvious for you here (sorry about that in that case),
but from your reply it looks like there is a bit of confusion :-).